March 11, 2012 AT 12:00 am

Scrap Yards Yield Raw Material for Artist’s Amazing Ray Guns

The first thing you’ll notice upon entering Clayton Bailey’s workshop is the man and his mustache. The ends of his majestic facial hair curl down either side of his mouth and don’t stop until they’re well down his chest.

Next you’ll notice the many steampunkish ray guns — from dueling pistols to rifles to turrets — that Bailey has constructed from materials he found at flea markets and scrap yards around the San Francisco Bay Area. Instead of shooting lasers, they utilize either lungpower or pump-action air pressure to launch peas, corks or bits of potato a third of the way down a football field.

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each" - Plato